Comfort in Unlikely Places
by Jinx13GXA
Summary: When We Take Different Paths week one day two. Juvia learns that Gray is taken and falls apart. How will she deal with getting comfort from her Love Rival? wlw Luvia mentions of past self harm. (May be a prequel to other prompts)


_The rain hasn't stopped in days,_ Lucy subconsciously noted. She was on her way to the guild that morning, the streets empty and quiet. It had been days since the vendors were open in the street, and she had a feeling they were two seconds from setting up in the storm anyways.

The rainwater splashed across her rain boots as she jumped across and in puddles while spinning her pink umbrella. Water droplets shot through the air and soaked what little of her was still dry. She laughed, not even caring about her makeup being ruined.

Lucy loved the rain.

By the time she reached the guild she was soaked, but she could always just go find Natsu.

* * *

Today was the first time that Juvia had been to the guild in a while. Her hair lacked the usual curls, and her smile lacked luster, but she had made it today. That had been difficult enough.

Nearly a week ago, Juvia had seen something she hadn't believed possible. It had obviously been something private, something so secret that not another soul in Fairy Tail knew about it, but that hadn't stopped her from seeing it. Her tendency to follow Gray had finally bitten her in the ass, and not in the way she had thought it would.

Gray Fullbuster was taken.

Not taken as in abducted, but taken as in smitten by another. Head over heels. Infatuated.

Juvia had suspected such a thing on more than one occasion, but she had always suspected people like Erza, who was bold and strong enough to keep Gray-sama in line. She had suspected Mirajane until the gorgeous bartender pledged to help her get her man.

She had suspected Lucy. Soft, elegant Lucy with her large chest and her powerful, rare magic and her blinding smile that could part clouds and bring sunshine into the darkest of places.

 _But Juvia was wrong. She had suspected the wrong damn gender, because everyone she ever falls for either wants to hurt her or is gay._

 _Why did Gray-sama have to be gay?_

The thud of the doors of the guild whipping open with the force of the wind broke her depressing train of thought, and she locked eyes with the brown ones she knew to be Lucy's. She broke contact immediately, the gut-wrenching feeling she got everytime she was near the blonde slamming into her full force.

 _Juvia does not want to deal with this today._

* * *

Lucy skipped into the guild happily, waving at those who greeted her. It only took a moment to weave through every one and get to Team Natsu's table, and once she did, she snuck up behind Natsu and glomped him, thoroughly soaking him in the process. He subconsciously activated his magic, the slight heat drying them both in only a few seconds.

"What the- LUCE!" Natsu shoved her off and swatted the back of her head playfully. "The fuck was that for?"

"I need you to be a human dryer for a minute, and that was the one way I knew I could get you to do it," Lucy said with a smirk.

Gray snorted, "You just got played, Flamebrain."

With those words, another one of Fairy Tail's famous brawls broke out.

* * *

Juvia watched Lucy from the back corner. She wasn't really watching Lucy, but Lucy was in between her and Gray, so that's what ended up happening. She was cheering in the fight between Natsu and Gray, shouting for both of them to beat the shit out of the other.

Not that they would.

They'd pretend to show off, maybe even do something fancy for the crowd, but they'd never really hurt each other. They did things they'd never do while fighting an enemy when they fought one another, and Juvia wasn't sure if anyone else even noticed.

They were always able to block because they always told the other where they were going to hit. Sometimes is was with an obvious feign, other times with the rapid movement of their eyes.

It looked real.

It always had, and maybe that's why Juvia had overlooked her true rival.

The way they acted around others was nothing compared to the gentleness she'd seen when Gray placed a chaste kiss against Natsu's temple under the cover of night. It was nothing like the shy "I love yous," or the quiet laughter that bubbled up from their throats when Natsu tried and failed to to peck Gray on the lips, both of them falling as they lost their balance.

 _Juvia can never have that with Gray, because it doesn't belong to her._

Acknowledging it hurt worse that seeing it.

* * *

Watching her dorky friends fight quickly lost its appeal when Erza showed up.

Long story short, both of them were now unconscious.

A flash of blue caught the celestial mage's attention, and it took her a moment to recognize Juvia. The blunette's hair was a mess, and her clothes were in a similar state. _How did I not notice that earlier?_

She had weaved through the crowd until she was at the door, fully intending on following the rain woman, when an armored hand clamped down on her shoulder.

"And where exactly," Erza said menacingly, "do you think you're going?"

 _Ah, shit. Shouldn't have egged them on._

* * *

Oranges, pinks, and yellows filled the sky as they reflected off of the slowly dying storm clouds. The beautiful sunsets nearly distracting Juvia from the sadness that was settling in her stomach.

 _It's not Gray-sama's fault that he's gay, so why was Juvia so fucking angry?_

In the days after what Juvia had been calling "the incident," she had switched wildly from denying that it had ever happened and wallowing in irrational anger as she ripped apart everything Gray related she owned.

Hand stitched dolls were still laying headless on her floor, but she wasn't sure if she was mentally stable enough to go back and clean them up.

Instead, Juvia sat on the cliffside near Fairy Hills, her legs dangling over the edge, precariously swinging back and forth. No matter how many times she told herself she'd get over it, she knew she wouldn't.

She remembered how people used to say she only felt sadness. It wasn't her fault that she was sad! She just wanted someone to see her as her, but everytime it happened it turned out to be a lie.

Juvia knew Gray wasn't like that. She knew he meant well, but she didn't understand why the world had left her to such a cruel, loveless fate. Why did the world want her to be alone?

Was is because she used to disobey her parents? Were their whips not punishment enough?

 _Juvia doesn't understand why it has to hurt so much._

* * *

Lucy gaped at the scene before her, the beauty and horror of it attacking her all at once. Juvia was sitting daintily on the cliffside as the sun set, the colors reflecting off of her pale complexion the same way they did with the clouds. The rain washed her makeup away, leaving the dark circles visible, and her sleeves had been rolled up to keep the ends from dragging in the mud while she leaned back on her arms. Her eyes seemed to hold the world's sadness, but she didn't cry.

The sky cried for her.

Lucy didn't know a word in any of the languages she spoke that could describe the feeling that arose in her when she noticed the old scars across Juvia's forearm, and she knew even less about the raw emotion that came when she saw the fresher ones. They were too jagged to have been done with a razor blade, and in the wrong direction and places to have been for the same reason.

 _Why would she drag her nails down her arms?_

The blonde rushed forwards to wrap her arms around Juvia's midsection, uncaring about how invasive it might seem to the water mage.

"Lucy-san?"

* * *

Warmth suddenly surrounded Juvia, the cold of the rain vanishing from the source. A small choked cry met her ears, and she had to suppress her shock. "Lucy-san?"

 _What happened? Why is Lucy-san crying? Why is she hugging me?_ Juvia's brain was firing off questions rapidly, and she didn't know how to feel about them all. Gentle fingers traced old scars, and for once, Juvia didn't feel the need to pull away. "Juvia is okay. Those are all old."

Lucy's fingers moved to the long scratch marks that ran up and down her forearms, "These aren't."

"Juvia was…" What was she? Angry? Upset? Frustrated? "Juvia didn't want to shout. It was early and she didn't want to wake everyone."

"No one would have minded," Lucy argued. The arm the Lucy still had around her midsection tightened. "Instead-" her voice cracked, "instead of doing this, could you come talk to me next time?"

The blunette nodded gently, and later that week she'd keep that promise.

Eventually, their once rivalry would end up just like Fairy Tail's most famous rivalry, but that's a story for another time.

Today it was just the two of them beneath the crying sky, desperately trying to heal both old and new wounds. Individuals alike in pain but different in story, and well.

Opposites attract, don't they?

* * *

 **So several of you have asked me what's going on, so I'm going to simplify it. My physics teacher lost my lab notebook and I gmhad to rewrite several reports _without the data,_ and I had a wasp nest fall on my head in the ****middle if class. However, those are the least insane things that happened. My school had two attempted suicides, one sucessful suicide, and almsot had a shooting over the course of three days. I'm alive, but I'm in a weird place mentally.**

 **So that's the kind of life I've been living, but hey, I'm still here. Hope you all are having a better time than me, and**

 **As always:**

 **Constructive criticism is always welcome,** **and if you find a typo, don't hesitate to point it out!**

 **Reviews/comments are my 90% motivation.**

 **Love you guys,**

 **-Jinx**


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